Thank you to everyone who has enjoyed the free movie screenings I have helped the movie studios promote, at absolutely no personal compensation, over the past three and a half years. I hope that you all still enjoy them and can easily obtain your tickets via the new giveaway format.
I am moving all movie free screening ticket giveaways to the A Parent in Silver Spring Facebook page and I will also be alerting readers via Twitter when I have passes available from movie promoters.
The reason? Website traffic to this blog has increased so much over the years (yay!) that as soon as I post, the tickets are gone (boo!).
I have also felt bad disappointing parents and children when treating these passes as elusive prizes here on the blog. Although it is always posted that these prescreening tickets never guarantee recipients a seat, I have received so many bummed out emails from folks who do not make it in, even though they had “won”. You have to get in line superduper early for these screenings, and still, you might not grab a spot for your booty. These free screenings before a film is released are always overbooked, as the promoters need to fill every seat in those theaters to help create buzz about a film before opening weekend.
And thus, I feel terrible treating these screening passes as extra-special-giveaway prizes here on the blog. Sometimes these passes are printed in newspapers, sometimes your credit card company sends them to you in the mail. So I think it is a more honest “giveaway” if I just throw an online login code onto my Facebook page for the website.
Tonight I am posting 100 free tickets to The Lion King in 3D re-release on Saturday morning August 27 at the Regal Majestic Silver Spring. If you love these not-guaranteed free movie passes, please Like A Parent in Silver Spring on Facebook and follow me on Twitter to receive notice whenever I have passes to hand out.
Facebook promotions rules state that I must administer the contest from the lefthand navigation links, so head on over to the left side and then follow the directions to obtain your passes. Good luck!
All giveaways administered here on A Parent in Silver Spring.com from here on out will be for honest-to-goodness, real prizes in which if your name is randomly chosen, you for sure will receive those performance tickets, children’s toy, video game, cash prize, gift card, hotel stay, gift certificate, restaurant voucher, nanny service, jogging stroller, opera night, t-shirt, onesie, book, board game, box of chocolates, pizza, massage, facial, CD, yoga class, coffee maker, reusable shopping bag, lip gloss, body lotion, bra, panties, nursing cover, baby quilt, diaper bag, slippers, water bottles you attach to your wrist, personal training session, skateboard, teas, candles, gourd birdhouse, monster truck tickets, cookies, pretzels, single copy of a magazine*, beef jerky or personal body groomer.
*My very first giveaway item was my first month of blogging and it was an extra copy of Real Simple I received by accident.
**I really have given away all of those items at one time or another on this site over the years!
SHARK WEEK, that annual summer programming of shark-tacular documentaries and shows on Discovery Channel, begins on Sunday July 31. And since we’re all so lucky to live near Discovery headquarters, we’re invited to the local Shark Week kick-off party.
The celebration will include a free preview screening in downtown Silver Spring of the brand new show Great White Invasion. The one-hour special looks into why great white sharks are coming closer to shore, swimming among unsuspecting humans more than ever before.
(Maybe that’s a little heavy for the little ones, but your middle schoolers and teens will find fascinating! Besides, it doesn’t start until after the babes are down in bed – 8:30pm.)
Cool bonus: The Discovery shark lovers will be giving away goodies throughout the night, including Shark Week hats, shirts and DVDs.
Also on hand will be Chompie Jr., the Shark Week mascot, who will be swimming around the plaza taking pics with people, which you should immediately upload to Discovery’s Shark Week Photo Frenzy. Also, have you seen the hilarious videos in the Shark Week Video Frenzy?
What: FREE community screening of Great White Invasion, featured in Shark Week 2011
When: Friday, July 29at 8:30 PM
Where: Veterans Plaza at the Silver Spring Civic Building
What to Bring: Family, friends, lawn chairs & an appetite for jawesome entertainment
Additionally, local restaurants are getting into the Shark Week spirit next week and offering these special restaurant deals!
- California Tortilla, all locations – “In celebration of the highly anticipated Shark Week on Discovery Channel, California Tortilla is having a special promotion featuring one of its signature items, fish tacos. Guests who purchase a fish taco on Thursday, July 28, will receive a free Discovery Channel Shark Week fin hat. Fish taco enthusiasts who return on Wednesday, August 3, wearing their distinguished Shark Week fin hat will receive a free taco with any California Tortilla purchase. These one-of-a-kind toppers are a necessity for the ultimate Shark Week viewing experience, which begins Sunday, July 31, at 9 p.m.on the Discovery Channel. Discovery Channel is giving away California Tortilla catering to 10 fans with top-rated pictures of how they celebrate in the Shark Week Photo Frenzy. California Tortilla will also award free burritos for a year to the customer who posts the best Shark Week fin hat picture to the California Tortilla Facebook page. ” – from the California Tortilla press release
- Lebanese Taverna Cafe in Silver Spring – Tuesday July 26, 2011, 11:30pm–7:00pm: Mention Shark Week at the Lebanese Taverna Cafe in Silver Spring and take a 15% bite off a SHARKwarma or Chicken SHARKwarma sandwich platter.
Disclosure: My husband works for Discovery.
UPDATE: All the passes are taken.
I have 70 passes to the Larry Crowne free advance screening on this Tuesday, June 28 at 7:30pm at AMC Mazza Gallerie in Chevy Chase.
Want a couple? Send the names in your party to apissgiveaways@gmail.com. You can give up to 4 names, first and last please. There will be an exclusive guest list at the door. I’ll update here when all the passes are gone.
This looks cute! I like trailers that play Tom Petty.
Official Film Synopsis
When appealing everyman LARRY CROWNE (Tom Hanks) is inexplicably fired from his job as a big box store clerk, he realizes it’s time for some meaningful change in his life. Deeply in debt and without direction, he returns to college where he befriends a group of scooter-riding students and eventually develops a real affection for his beautiful speech class instructor, MERCEDES TAINOT (Julia Roberts).
Charming and smart, LARRY CROWNE reminds us of life’s small surprises. Sometimes clouds really do have a silver lining. It’s also about the power of new beginnings like the time Larry Crowne, an ordinary man with a gentle heart, was forced to downsize his world…and ended up expanding his life.
Rated PG-13
Interested in free tickets to see Cars 2 in 3D at a special advance screening? I have 25 family 4-packs of tickets for readers of A Parent in Silver Spring!
Update: All winners have been drawn and notified. Thank you for entering!
What: Cars 2!
When: Saturday June 18 at 10:30 am (although you must arrive early to get a seat – they always overbook these screenings)
Where: Regal Magestic Theatre in downtown Silver Spring at 900 Ellsworth Drive
HOW TO WIN TICKETS
Because this giveaway is bound to be CRAZY POPULAR, here’s how I’m handing the giveaway to give everyone who reads this blog this weekend an equal chance to win:
- Send an email to apissgiveaways@gmail.com with your HOME MAILING ADDRESS by Monday June 13 at 9 am.
- I will randomly draw out of a hat (literally!) 25 of the families that enter via the avenue above.
- The 25 winning families will receive 4 free tickets mailed to their home (sorry, only 4 tickets per family, no exceptions).
- Yup, you have to receive your tickets by mail. Nope, I will not meet you somewhere or drive the tickets to your house. Sorry kids, I’ve got a new baby!
- Winners will also be notified by email. Non-winners will not be notified.
- If it turns out your family cannot attend the screening, then simply give your tickets to friends.
- Comments on this post do not count as entries. All emails that do not include a home mailing address cannot be counted.
GOOD LUCK!
CARS 2 – RATED G – Official film synopsis:
Star racecar Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) and the incomparable tow truck Mater (voice of Larry the Cable Guy) take their friendship to exciting new places in “Cars 2” when they head overseas to compete in the first-ever World Grand Prix to determine the world’s fastest car. But the road to the championship is filled with plenty of potholes, detours and hilarious surprises when Mater gets caught up in an intriguing adventure of his own: international espionage. Mater finds himself torn between assisting Lightning McQueen in the high-profile race and towing the line in a top-secret mission orchestrated by master British super spy Finn McMissile (voice of Michael Caine) and the stunning spy-in-training Holley Shiftwell (voice of Emily Mortimer). Mater’s action-packed journey leads him on an explosive chase through the streets of Japan and Europe, trailed by his friends and watched by the whole world. The fast-paced fun includes a colorful new all-car cast, complete with menacing villains and international racing competitors.
John Lasseter returns to the driver’s seat to direct this follow-up to his 2006 Golden Globe®-winning “Cars.” “Cars 2” is co-directed by Brad Lewis, producer of the Oscar®-winning film “Ratatouille,” and produced by visual effects industry veteran Denise Ream (associate producer, “Up”; visual effects executive producer, “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith”). The film hits the track on June 24, 2011, and will be presented in Disney Digital 3D™ and IMAX® 3D in select theaters.
From the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center website:
Silver Babies
AFI Silver Theatre [from Jess - in downtown Silver Spring right on the NW DC border - location, directions and parking info here] welcomes moms, dads and caregivers with babies to Silver Babies, special Friday morning screenings of current films. Admission for adults is only $8.50 (the regular weekday matinee price) and babies get in FREE!
At Silver Babies screenings, theatre lights remain dimly lit throughout the show, and the volume won’t exceed a comfortable level.
There is plenty of nearby parking here, and FREE stroller parking in the Silver lobby!
Please check the calendar for upcoming Silver Babies screenings, and find out first by subscribing to AFI Silver’s weekly e-newsletter.
Upcoming Silver Babies showings this week:
June 3:
EVERYTHING MUST GO, 10:30 a.m.
CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS, 10:45 a.m.
